Star Wars: Clone Wars

Speaking of aliens, I happened to flip on The Clone Wars, the new Cartoon Network Series. (hint: you can click & drag Yoda on the main page)

Star Wars: A New Hope came out right before I was born & the Star Wars universe has always been my favorite fictional creation.

When I saw the trailers for the animated The Clone Wars movie, I thought the animation looked kind of cheesy, so I didn't see it in the theater. Thanks to such idiotic, unholy edits as replacing Anakin Skywalker's ghost with Hayden Christensen's younger likeness, I cannot automatically defer to George Lucas's judgement.

I liked the idea of an animated TV series, but the idea of using the same cartoonish character style as the movie really turned me off. I'd prefer almost like a realistic video game cutscene.

Anyway, I watched a couple episodes they were playing back-to-back last night. Not only did the animation not bother me, I thought it was really friggin' cool overall. Judging from the already high ratings, that show is definitely going to be a hit simply because it's fun to watch for all ages. Cartoon Network already has grown-up viewers for Adult Swim, & the audience seems to reflect that.

The entire reality that Lucas has conjured out of his head is pretty remarkable. He can take the timeline as far back into the past or as far into the future as he wants. Now all he has to do is start fleshing out the post-Empire universe, ie. Dark Empire.